Press release, 1st February 2023
Lack of access to equitable and quality education dramatically reduces children’s chances of realizing their potential and learning essential life skills. For children from disadvantaged areas, access to fair and quality education is a daily challenge, due to factors such as poverty, discrimination, lack of support from parents and the community.
Starting from this framework, Terre des hommes Romania Foundation, together with Romanian Social Development Fund, the Support Association for Physically Handicapped Children (Romania) and FAFO Norway, launched the NOROC project (Norwegian-Romanian Initiative for Quality in Education), for to improve the quality of educational services, with preference in rural areas.
In the short term, the project aims to combat school dropout and facilitate the transition from primary to secondary school, and from secondary school to high school for hundreds of children at risk. In the medium and long term, the intervention aims to improve the quality of educational services by training teachers and mediators in working methods with children at risk of dropping out of school and/or with special educational requirements.
Terre des hommes Romania Foundation will support the schools involved in the NOROC project to establish procedures for the identification and monitoring of hundreds of children at risk of dropping out of school, will provide training and counseling for teachers in the field of improving the quality of educational services, transferring work methods experienced in other projects. In addition, children at risk of dropping out of school and children with SEN (special educational needs) will be supported. Thus, the quality of educational services will increase in 20 schools from Dolj, Olt, Gorj, Vâlcea and Bacău counties.
The best results occur when the school and the community act together with the parents, in the interest of the children.
Within the framework of the NOROC project, the round table “Challenges of education in rural schools” was organized where guests, representatives of Terre des hommes Romania Foundation, teachers from the 20 schools within the project, specialists from the Didactic House and the County Resource Centers and Educational Assistance from the 5 counties covered by the project, but also NGOs from similar sectors, evaluated the current situation regarding education in the rural environment and found innovative solutions to reduce school dropout, support children with CES (educational requirements special), but also the reduction of discrimination in schools, especially in rural areas.
Among the mentioned solutions are the provision of additional didactic resources and materials for teachers, the creation of a favorable and inclusive learning environment for students. They also emphasized the importance of involving both the public sector (through the CJRAE), the local community (through the support provided by civil society representatives) and the school. The need for constant support for families and children from disadvantaged backgrounds was also highlighted. Coaching and mentoring activities are also needed among teachers, students and their parents, especially for parents whose children have special educational requirements.
At the same time, the involvement of parents in extracurricular activities together with teachers and students is placed in the category of the most important factors that contribute to the success of a fair and quality education. The involvement of parents in extracurricular activities with the school and the local community will lead both to the improvement of the students’ relationship with the school and to the increase of the parents’ involvement in the children’s education.
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The project ’The Initiative ’NOROC in Education’ – A NOrwegian – ROmanian Initiative for Quality in Education’ benefits from a 998.000 € grant from Norway through the Local Development Program. The aim of the project is to improve the quality of educational services, especially in rural areas in 5 counties of Romania. This document has been created with the financial support of Norwegian Grants 2014 – 2021.
The content of this material does not reflect the official view of the Programme Operator, of the National Focal Point or of the Office of the Financial Mechanism. The information and opinions expressed herein represent the sole responsibility of the author(s).
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